Seven Wonders/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Tim flips the switch to light his model lighthouse. Nothing is happening. Moby observes. MOBY: Beep. TIM: I can't get my lighthouse to light up. Moby taps the lighthouse and breaks it. TIM: Okay then. Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, what were the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World? From, Alana. Well, this is one of them. Or, was one of them. The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World are monuments that were built in Europe, Africa, and Western Asia. I guess this'll have to wait. Tim looks at the broken lighthouse. Moby spins a globe on the desk. TIM: The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were once located in the part of the world now known as Iraq. Iraq is highlighted on the globe. TIM: They were actually terraced gardens probably built by King Nebuchadnezzar the second in the sixth century B.C.E. Legend has it that he built them to please his wife, who was homesick for the mountain climate of her native land. An image shows the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, the gardens weren't the easiest thing to sustain in that part of the world. Babylon was in a desert where there was very little rainfall. An animation shows a small lake that dries up in the desert. TIM: Engineers had to come up with a way to lift water up from the local Euphrates River so it could reach every level of the terrace. Archeologists think that they may have used something called a chain pump. The chain was cranked in circles, sending the buckets down to a pool to pick up water, and then up to the terraces to irrigate the gardens. An animation shows the chain pump with buckets. TIM: Since there's no archeological evidence for the Hanging Gardens, some historians think that they never really existed. The statue of Zeus at Olympia was built to honor the most important Greek god. Greece is highlighted on the globe. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Zeus. The statue was built around four thirty-five B.C.E in celebration of the Olympic games. It was made of gold and ivory and stood twelve meters tall. An image shows people viewing the statue of Zeus. TIM: In what's now known as Turkey, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was finished around five hundred fifty B.C.E. Turkey is highlighted on the globe. TIM: The temple to Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt, was made of marble and contained a total of one hundred twenty-seven eighteen-meter-tall columns. It took nearly a century to finish. It was destroyed and rebuilt several times, until it was finally torn down for good in the year four oh one C.E. An image shows the temple of Artemis. TIM: Today, a few columns have been re-erected to mark the spot. An image shows a column in the spot where the temple once stood. TIM: Practically next door, also in Turkey, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was built by Mausolus on the advice of his wife, Artemisia. The globe with Turkey highlighted is shown. TIM: The rectangular tomb supported a colonnade with a pyramidal roof and a sculpture of four horses pulling a chariot on top. Unfortunately, Mausolus died before the tomb was finished around three hundred and fifty B.C.E. An image shows the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. TIM: The tomb was taken apart in the sixteenth century to reuse the stone, but some of the sculptures and friezes are on display today in the British Museum. An animation shows people viewing gold sculptures from the mausoleum that are displayed at the museum. TIM: Back in Greece, the Colossus at Rhodes stood at the entrance to the busy harbor of the city of Rhodes. The globe highlighting Greece is shown. TIM: The Colossus was a thirty-two meter-high bronze statue of the Greek sun-god, Helios. Inside the statue, several stone columns acted as main supports. The Colossus stood for fifty-six years but then collapsed in an earthquake. An animation shows the Colossus at Rhodes collapsing in an earthquake. TIM: The Pharos of Alexandria in Egypt was the first-ever lighthouse. Egypt is highlighted on the globe. TIM: It reached one hundred and thirty-four meters into the air. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah, well; it was a big deal back then. The lighthouse, or pharos, was erected during the third century B.C.E. off the coast of Egypt to guide trade ships to its harbor. An animation shows the Pharos of Alexandria on the edge of a harbor where ships are sailing. TIM: During the day, a mirror reflected sunlight to guide the ships. At night, a fire was lit with fuel carried up from the ground. Moby is shown on a ship viewing the lighthouse at day and night. TIM: Also in Egypt, the Great Pyramid of Giza was built around twenty-five sixty B.C.E. as a tomb for the Egyptian pharaoh Khufu, or Cheops. The globe highlighting Egypt is shown. Then an image shows the Great Pyramid of Giza. TIM: Later on, two smaller pyramids were built on the same site, one by Khufu's son, Khafra, and the other by Khafra's son, Menkaure. Standing nearly one hundred and fifty meters tall at the time of its completion, the Great Pyramid was the tallest structure in the world until the nineteenth century. The two smaller pyramids are shown next to the Great Pyramid. TIM: It's the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still standing today. The pyramids are shown in modern times, and an airplane is seen flying near the pyramids. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah, there were lots of other really impressive structures in the world like the Mayan temples in Mesoamerica or the Great Wall in China. But when the "list of wonders" was compiled by the Greeks, they'd never seen China or the Americas. Images show a Mayan temple and the Great Wall. TIM: Today there are a bunch of other "seven wonders" lists, including lists of modern wonders and natural wonders. You can learn more about them in our other features. MOBY: Beep. Moby holds up a drawing of a statue of himself wearing a crown. There are people bowing to it. TIM: You want a statue of yourself in gold and ivory? MOBY: Beep. TIM: That's a little conceited, don't you think? Moby shakes his head, no. MOBY: Beep. Moby holds up a picture of Tim. TIM: My class portrait? That's totally different. I didn't even want to get my picture taken. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Social Studies Transcripts